AC Immune
will be searching for a new CEO for the first time, as the company announced this week that
Andrea Pfeifer
plans to retire
after 23 years at the helm.
Pfeifer co-founded AC Immune back in 2003 and steered the biotech to an IPO in 2016. Since then, AC Immune has been no stranger to big pharma partnerships and had its fair share of controversies. Most notably, the biotech partnered with
Roche
and
Genentech
on the Alzheimer’s drug
crenezuamab
, which
failed
two Phase 3 studies for prodromal Alzheimer’s in the mid 2010s. In 2022, the companies followed up with a
Phase 2 miss
in Alzheimer’s prevention — though AC Immune
tried to spin it positively
anyway. Roche
terminated
the partnership in 2024.
For some of AC Immune’s wholly owned programs, it was similarly contentious. The biotech bragged in 2021 that it had
“remarkable” and “unprecedented”
results on an Alzheimer’s vaccine, but didn’t disclose any specific data, and the results came from a trial with just 32 patients. AC Immune is teamed up with
Johnson & Johnson
on the program, but enrollment in a new trial was
paused
earlier this year.
Pfeifer’s retirement comes after the company
trimmed
its pipeline and laid off 30% of its staff last September in a bid to extend its runway into 2027.
Martin Zügel
, AC Immune’s board chair, will serve as interim CEO while the search for a new chief proceeds. —
Max Gelman
→
Acadia Pharmaceuticals
R&D chief
Elizabeth Thompson
will retire at the end of the year, and the commercial biotech is looking for her replacement. Thompson had led R&D at
Horizon Therapeutics
— sticking around for a bit at
Amgen
when the buyout was completed — and
joined Acadia
in the spring of 2024. Phase 2 results are on deck this year for Acadia’s 5HT2A receptor inverse agonist
remlifanserin
in patients with Alzheimer’s disease psychosis. In December, the FDA approved a strawberry-flavored powder formulation of Acadia’s Rett syndrome treatment
Daybue
. “Leading Acadia’s research and development organization has been a defining chapter in my career and one in which I take a great deal of pride,” Thompson
said in a statement
, adding, “I am particularly pleased with how we’ve been able to strengthen the remlifanserin program, especially by expanding it into Lewy body dementia psychosis.”
→
AnaptysBio
has tapped
Chris Murphy
as CFO and welcomed
XOMA Royalty
CEO
Owen Hughes
to the board of directors. Murphy and CEO
Daniel Faga
are a two-man executive team as Anaptys
concentrates
on “royalty streams” from its partnerships with
GSK
(
Jemperli
) and
Vanda Pharmaceuticals
(
imsidolimab
). Anaptys’ spinoff
First Tracks Biotherapeutics
handles the rest of the pipeline. Murphy is another Horizon vet and was elevated to group VP, commercial operations, market access and analytics at the end of a six-year run with the company. He also popped up in Peer Review when
he became
chief financial and business officer at the now-shuttered
Third Harmonic Bio
.
→ It’s hard to give up any spot at the world’s most valuable pharmaceutical company, but
Eli Lilly
’s executive director for its obesity commercial strategy in the US employer market is leaving after 23 years at the pharma giant.
Dennis O’Brien
wrote
on LinkedIn that it was “time to move on.”
→ After the FDA
rejected
Replimune
’s oncolytic virus therapy once again, its chief commercial officer is moving on.
Chris Sarchi
is taking the same role
at
Bicara Therapeutics
, a public biotech that is studying a monoclonal antibody called
ficerafusp alfa
in recurrent or metastatic, HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Bicara has also promoted
Bill Schelman
to CMO as
David Raben
slides into an advisory post. Schelman had led clinical development at Bicara for the past eight months, and the
Hutchmed
vet jumped to industry at
Eli Lilly
in the 2010s.
→
Flagship Pioneering
has hired
Nathan Jorgensen
as a growth partner after we informed you last week about his
departure
from
Voyager Therapeutics
. Former
Exact Sciences
and
binx health
CEO
Jeffrey Luber
is also on board in the same capacity. Jorgensen spent nearly two years with Voyager as CFO and held that position at
Vor Bio
from 2020-24.
→
Verastem Oncology
said in its Q1 report
that
Daniel Lyons
had joined the team as chief commercial officer. Lyons was promoted to SVP, head of rare tumors international and global head of market access at
SpringWorks Therapeutics
, which had two products cross the regulatory finish line before it was sold to
Merck KGaA
:
Ogsiveo
for desmoid tumors and
Gomekli
for neurofibromatosis type 1. Last year at this time, the FDA
approved
Verastem’s
Avmapki Fakzynja Co-Pack
for certain ovarian cancer patients.
→ Now led by former
Five Prime
CEO
Tom Civik
on an interim basis,
Pyxis Oncology
has brought in
Nelson Azoulay
as CBO. Azoulay had been SVP, strategy and business development for Flagship since November 2024, and he oversaw corporate development at
ImmunoGen
at the time of its
$10 billion exit
to
AbbVie
. Like the ovarian cancer drug at the heart of the ImmunoGen buyout, Pyxis’ lead asset
micvotabart pelidotin
is an antibody-drug conjugate for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
→
Edward Rebar
has been named
CSO of
CPTx
, a German
in vivo
CAR-T developer using single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) in the hopes that it leads to less toxicity. Rebar had a 22-year career at
Sangamo
and was chief technology officer at
Sana Biotechnology
from 2020-24. Meanwhile, CPTx has promoted
David Maier
to CBO after he served as president of its ssDNA manufacturing unit called
gxstrands
.
→ It’s been a minute since
Srikanth
Pendyala
has shown up in Peer Review.
We mentioned him
in 2021, when he was named CMO of
Endeavor
BioMedicines
. Pendyala left the fibrosis drug developer in 2023 to become CMO at a stealth company, according to his LinkedIn. It’s unclear what that three-year period entailed, but he’s reemerged to lead the IL-22 and IL-13 antibodies at
Merck-
partnered
Infinimmune
as medical chief. “After 25 years of developing immunology therapeutics, it’s clear that the drugs that work best in patients tend to resemble what the human immune system already makes,” Pendyala
said in a statement
.
→
Donn Casale
will become
president of
neffy
maker
ARS Pharmaceuticals
on June 1. This is the second move involving a
Dynavax
vet this month after the appointment of
Andrew Davis
as CBO of
Convergent Therapeutics
. Casale was promoted to chief commercial officer at Dynavax in 2023 and still held that job title when
Sanofi
bought
the vaccine maker for $2.2 billion.
→ Septerna
said in a quarterly update
this week that medical chief
Jae
Kim
is leaving for a job located “near his primary residence” in Southern California. The Bay Area biotech has started a search for his successor. Kim came to Septerna in 2024 after brief stints in the CMO role at
Design
Therapeutics
and
Avidity
Biosciences
. Septerna will need a new medical chief soon: The drug developer is headed into Phase 2b in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the second half of this year and last month started a Phase 1 in hypoparathyroidism. Its R&D team also has preclinical work in Graves’ disease and a collaboration for oral obesity drugs with
Novo
Nordisk
.
→ AstronauTx
, a London-based “sleep architecture” biotech,
has recruited
former
PepGen
and
EveryONE
Medicines
CMO
Michelle
Mellion
to lead its clinical work. The trained neurologist steps into the CMO role as AstronauTx “is preparing to initiate clinical development” for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders. The startup hasn’t disclosed additional VC funding since its
$61 million Series A
in 2023.
→
Muzammil Mustufa
has landed
at Henderson, NV-based
Zura Bio
as CBO. Mustufa spent a decade at
Amicus Therapeutics
, where he was VP of corporate strategy and played a key role in the
$4.8 billion sale
to
BioMarin
. Former
Tourmaline Bio
chief
Sandeep Kulkarni
is in his first year
as CEO of Zura Bio, which is testing its IL-17xBAFF bispecific
tibulizumab
in hidradenitis suppurativa and systemic sclerosis.
→
OnCusp Therapeutics
hit the scene
in January 2024 with a $100 million Series A from
Novo Holdings
,
OrbiMed
,
F-Prime Capital
and a cast of thousands. But there have been minimal updates since then, notably the
arrival
of former
Arcus
CMO
Dimitry Nuyten
to the same position. OnCusp
has now added
Anthony Kim
as CFO after he did some consulting work for
Orum Therapeutics
, which has made deals with
Vertex
and
Bristol Myers Squibb
. He left healthcare investment banking to make his CFO debut at
Marker Therapeutics
from 2018-22.
→ Acute ischemic injury specialist
Immediate Therapeutics
has selected
Bradley Newman
as global head of manufacturing and supply chain, and
Chia-Wen Lee
as global head of market access. Newman had multiple roles at
Baxter
that spanned more than a decade, including senior director, commercial operations for
Baxter Biopharma Solutions
. Lee is a
Moderna
and
Sanofi Genzyme
alum who was head of global market access & value at
Viatris
. Ex-
Harbour BioMed
strategy chief and US operations leader
Atul Deshpande
is running Immediate Therapeutics for a second time after a three-year stint at
Peptilogics
.
→ A few band members from
Verona Pharma
are back together
at
Achieve Life Sciences
. Ex-Verona commercial chief
Chris Martin
has picked up a seat on the board of directors, while Achieve has also installed
Mark Zappia
as SVP of commercial and
Jim Willis
as VP of sales. Zappia and Willis helped Martin with the launch of Verona’s COPD treatment
Ohtuvayre
as VP of commercial operations and national sales director, respectively. Merck
bought Verona
last year for $10 billion.
→ Former
Celgene
CEO
Bob Hugin
is chairing the board
at
Neomorph
, the molecular glue partner of choice for Novo Nordisk,
Biogen
and AbbVie. The San Diego biotech said last month it
had raised
a $100 million Series B.
→
Corbus Pharmaceuticals
has appointed
Century Therapeutics
CEO
Brent Pfeiffenberger
to its board of directors. The 19-year Bristol Myers vet was COO of
Neogene Therapeutics
before he took over at Century.